LITMIR.BIZ

      AS A GENRE of music, the ko-uta is best described by a direct translation of the word—literally, “little song.” Most ko-uta may be sung in less than a minute, longer ones taking perhaps three or four at most. They are accompanied by the shamisen—a fretless, three-stringed, long-necked, “banjo-like” instrument. The difficulty in singing ko-uta lies in the fact that voice and instrument take two separate threads of sound and interval, weaving them together like a duet. The shamisen gives the initial note of a phrase, leading the singer, and after that it is the complicated timing and skillful juxtaposition of shamisen and voice which is appreciated.

      It is difficult to convey the musical aspect on the written page, but the aim of this sampling from the ko-uta repertoire is to introduce in a small way the fascinating diversity of these songs. Ranging from the most refined aestheticism to earthy humor, ko-uta have been created from many sources. Like haiku, they are an extremely short medium of expression; thus, their essence is pithiness. They must make their point in few words, so they tend to be “dense” in the sense that many images may be evoked with a few well-chosen phrases.

      Ko-uta come to life when they are sung, and the best example of where they live is in the geisha world. Most geisha study and perform ko-uta, and many of the songs concern male-female relations in the pleasure quarters.

      Unlike haiku and the other forms of Japanese poetry thus far introduced to the West that come from the aristocratic world or from the “wandering monk” tradition, ko-uta belong to the hardworking, hard-playing merchant class of the late Edo period (mainly 19th century). The rise of the geisha coincided with the rise in prosperity of this class, and ko-uta express the sentiments of sophisticated Edo (now Tokyo) city dwellers at play.

      One

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